Marauderess
by Marissa Elizabeth
Summary: What would happen if James Potter had a twin sister? A...marauderess, of sorts.


Dear Diary,

Name: Jocelyn Michelle Potter.

Age: 11 ½

Year: One.

Favorite/Least Favorite Class: DADA/Potions.

Best Friends: James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily, Gracie, Emma.

Crush: Nathaniel Poliken.

My name is Josie, and those stats are my life at the moment. I am halfway through my first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I just got you two days ago for Christmas, from Remus, and I have put so many curses on you that it truly is not even funny. If any one of my brothers opens you, they'll be in for a huge surprise. My brothers are James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter. James is the only one of my brothers that is actually my brother. We're twins, we do everything together. But Remus, Peter, James and I have a different bond of siblinghood. We are the Marauders, and I am a Marauderess.

The only reason you belong to me at this point is because Remus is by far the worst gift-giver there has ever been or ever will be in this world. He literally walked up to me two days ago and said "Josie, I'm getting you a diary. If you have any objections, voice them now." I didn't voice anything. SO I now have you. Admittedly, you're really pretty and I love the ribbon across the front, but Remus is just amusing in that way. He's brilliant, possibly the most brilliant wizard in our year, but there are some social things that he's just completely incompetent at. I've heard that most brilliant, loner people are like that. Remus was a loner, but we don't allow him to be any more. He first became our friend when James and Sirius were going to put a bunch of dung bombs into the staff room, and they saw Remus in the hallway as they were going by. Convinced that this "quiet" and "studious" boy was going to report them, they ran. Then they heard a steady, quiet voice say from behind them, "I know another back way in, if you're interested." And without looking back, Remus Lupin led my brothers into the staff room, where they got Slughorn, and got him good. That's not to say that I didn't know Remus before, on our first day of Hogwarts, there wasn't an open compartment, so James and I walked into one that had no one but a scarred, sleeping boy in it. That boy was Remus, but he slept most of the way there.

While I'm going off on this tangent, I might as well tell you how we met Sirius Orion Black. He was sorted into Gryffindor, just after his twin cousins, Bellatrix (whom he refers to as Bella when you catch him in a moment of weakness) and Narcissa (referred to as Sissy during such times) were sorted into Slytherin. When asked if he was related to them by me, he said "I'm not a Black, and don't you forget it. My last name might be the same as theirs, but I am nothing like my cousins." The kid had spunk and I liked him. So we let him stick around for a while.

The way we met Peter was a bit…different than the rest of them. He was called up to be sorted just before James and I, and some big kids who were sorted into Slytherin (Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, nasty brutes…) were giving him a hard time and not letting him get up to the platform. James and I stepped in and let him go through. "Hey, hey, hey, come on guys. He hasn't done anything to you yet, when he does something, we'll personally help you beat up on him, but it's the first day. So you come and see us if he does something to you, but until then, leave him alone, okay?" Crabbe and Goyle aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, in fact, they're a bit blunt. So they just nodded dumbly and allowed Peter to go through. Since that day, Peter is eternally indebted to us, and he follows us around. We like him well enough, so it's okay.

Today was an awesome Christmas. We all decided to stay in school so that we could get the full experience of a Hogwarts Christmas. That, and Sirius detested the idea of going home, so we decided as a group to stay with him. Peter couldn't convince his mother to let him, though. So for now, it's James, me, Sirius, and Remus. Don't tell any of my brothers I said this, but I kind of like it better this way. The rest of us earned our places, even James and I. Peter kind of just followed us around until we had to make him a Marauder.

I mean, Remus was different on the inside than he was on the outside, which is exactly the kind of people I like.

Sirius had spunk and, we later discovered, a wicked sense of humor and a flare for the mischievous. According to my female friends, he's also is quite gorgeous, but I must have been desensitized or something. He has long-ish, jet black hair and grey eyes, but not the kind of grey his cousin Narcissa has, Narcissa's eyes are cold. Sirius's eyes look like the sky right when it's about to rain in the summer. His skin is halfway between too pale and tan, and he's halfway between skinny and muscular. He's a lot stronger than he looks, though. He's picked me up bridal-style and carried me halfway around the castle once. James didn't know where I was and he freaks out when that happens. We're twins, we're always together, but sometimes I'll be with my other friends and I forgot to tell him or something and he literally sends out a search team. So Sirius carried me, kicking and screaming, all the way down to the Great Hall from our common room. People still tease me about it. Sirius might be physically stronger than he looks, but I can tell that he's also emotionally weaker than he tries to let people know. We all know he has a hard time at home, that much is evident in the way he speaks. It always seems that his brother is the saving grace of the Black household, but even so Sirius hasn't sent Regulus a single owl this year. I don't have the heart to ask him why, but sometimes I think things are even worse than he tells us. He winces when touched and shrinks away from people without meaning to, kind of like a puppy that's been kicked too many times. Or maybe Sirius just isn't very touchy. I don't know…this is all speculation about him. And another thing about those eyes of his, they bore right into you like they know what you're thinking and feeling. Narcissa's eyes do that too, but hers look prying, and Sirius's looks more concerned, like they're trying to see how they can help you. What's the word? Earnest. I think that's it. I hope you appreciate this little blurb, because Sirius is looking at me weirdly now, because I've been looking at him for too long. "Go ahead Josie, take in the beauty, I knew you weren't immune." "Sod off Sirius, I'm writing about how weird you look when you're thinking." "Oh…maybe I should stop thinking about tings then, eh Josie?" Sirius calls me Josie and James Jamesie. I think he's making fun of James, but then I remember that he's a nice kid, under all that brooding and humor.

Remus has long, light brown hair that, in general, does what he wants, and he has these deep brown eyes that make you automatically think that he knows what he's doing, even if he doesn't. He has very trustworthy eyes, but not very trusting eyes. He'll be there for you whenever you need him, but he has this horrible issue with thinking people are going to abandon him when we won't. I mean, they won't. That's completely ludicrous, of course. None of us would ever betray another Marauder. Not even if our life depended on it. His skin would be tanner if he didn't look so sickly all the time, so his cheeks are never flushed. He has a couple of scars running down his face, and every time you ask him where he got them the story is different. They change color depending on his temperature, and I barely notice them. Some people describe them as "horrendous". I tend to hex them. I call them "endearing." They show you he isn't as quiet and unassuming as he seems. In my opinion, he got those scars in a fight. Who knows, maybe he'll trust us enough to tell us where he really got them one day. There's more all over his body, or at least on his arms and legs. I see them when he rolls up his sleeves or the cuffs of his pants. Maybe he just plays in brambles a lot. Maybe I'll never know.

Peter has mousy hair that is a mix of blond and light brown. His eyes are a watery blue, and sometimes he looks like he's close to tears when he isn't. His nose is a bit long for the rest of him, he's short for his age and a bit on the plumper side, he scares easily and he whimpers a lot. His lips are very thin and his skin is very pale. He wrings his hands a lot when he's nervous, excited, happy, sad, hungry, and almost any other time. I get a weird feeling from Peter sometimes, like he doesn't feel safe with us or that he'd leave us if something "better" (in quotes because there's nothing better) came along. I bury that feeling deep into the back of my mind, and it only comes out when I'm trying to sleep on a bad night. Those are the nights I sleep on the floor of the boys' dorm, between James's bed and Sirius's bed. They never mind it, not one bit.

James and I look so much alike that it's kind of scary. We both have hazel eyes with flecks of gold in them if you look really hard. We have the same haircut; mine extremely short for a girl and his extremely long for a boy. Our hair is jet black, the same shade as Sirius, and it always sticks up in the back. We can never get it to do what we want, and we envy Remus his hair. Our mother has this annoying habit of trying to smooth is down, but it hasn't worked for 11 years, so we don't think it's going to work any time soon. We get freckles in the summer, but since it's December now, our skin is pale. We're built athletically, at just about average height and weight. We're both forced to wear glasses (round, black, ugly ones at that) and we both bite our fingernails. Sometimes it's difficult to realize the differences between James and me until we go up opposite staircases at night to the dormitories. I hate getting mistaken for my brother almost as much as he hates being mistaken for me. It's for that reason that I'm going to start to grow my hair out a little. I'll keep it short, just because I like it that way, but I don't want to be described as "boyish" any more by the time I reach second year. It's kind of embarrassing. Please don't think I'm turning girly on anyone here. James got me makeup for Christmas as a joke. I told him I would only use it if I got to use it on him. (I kept it under my bed anyway, who knows if I'll need it in the future. That's where I've decided to keep you, in the loose floorboard under my bed. I hope you don't mind, it's a compliment, really. It's where I keep all of my important things I don't want anyone else to find.) And who knows about the makeup, either? Maybe I could put it on Lily or something. To put it on me would be downright embarrassing at this point.

Speaking of embarrassing, you'll never guess what happened today.

This Ravenclaw, something Patil, I don't know her first name, was talking to me at dinner today, just for something to do, and she rated all four of my brothers. She gave both James and Sirius 10s (I considered sending her to the Hospital Wing for mental reasons, I really did.) Peter was a three (in my honest opinion she was being kind.) And Remus was about an eight, points were taken off for his scars. But then she asked me to rate them myself! Rate my own brothers on how attractive they are! She forgave me James, so I have to at least give her a bit of credit, but she expected me to look her in the eyes and rate my own brothers! The things I said to her weren't very "Great Hall" appropriate, so I have detention when the term starts up again. One of the really good things about being a Marauder is the fact that everyone stands by you. It's now James, Remus, and Sirius' personal mission to get detention as well before the term starts. And knowing my brothers, they will have absolutely no problems at all.

Not many other people are at Hogwarts for the Holiday. There's me, James, Remus, Sirius, The Patil Girl, Nathaniel (more on him later), and some strange boy named Xavier Lovegood. He has platinum blond hair and silvery blue eyes that are never fixed on one thing. He doesn't make sense about a lot of things, but in some ways, I think he makes more sense than everyone else combined.

It's later, which means I'm talking about Nathaniel now. He. Is. SO. Cute. He's a Ravenclaw; he's smart and funny and amazing and, best of all, kind. If What'shername Patil asked me to rate him, he'd be 12 out of 10. He has dark brown hair, not black like James or Sirius or I, and his eyes are such a bright blue that they startle you at first. He's built like a Beater, with stronger arms than he has legs, and he has a smile that literally lights up a room, I think he charmed it or something. He's kind of tall for our age, and I'm as tall as the average boy, so I'm tall for a girl, so we'd go together perfectly, I'm sure of it. He sits next to me in Charms and History of Magic. We make fun of Binns and take notes on alternate days so neither of us fails. Everything just works out so perfectly! My brothers know that I like him, but they don't know how much. Even the little they know is enough to make them shoot him death glares across the Great Hall. It's all I can do that they don't hex him back all the way to the first chapter of Hogwarts, A History, which all five of us have made our mission NOT to read within the next seven years, and we even got Remus to agree. My brothers all know my crush, and I know their crushes too. Sirius likes Gracie Harlow, Remus has a tiny crush on Marlene McKinnon, James has a slightly unhealthy crush on one Lily Evans, and Peter just blushes, giggles, wrings his hands, and gets smaller when we ask him.

Well, it's about eleven so I'll be off to bed now. I'm sleeping in the boys' dormitory, in one of the empty beds. It doesn't really matter; I'd be alone in the girls' dorm anyway. But the boys want to go to bed, so I bid you adieu.

Like (not love, I don't know you well enough yet),

Josie Potter, Marauderess, Mistress of Mischief.


End file.
